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Top 10 Action Game Sequels That Need to Happen

There are loads of overlooked and underappreciated action games out there.
While many of them convinced gamers with either their fun gameplay, great stories or even both, they don't necessarily always meet the expected sales figures by their respective publishers.

To raise attention for some of those hidden gems and its potential sequels, let's count down the "Top 10 Action Game Sequels That Need to Happen" (as of November 2015).

The rules and factors that influence the picks for this list are the following:

- the quality of the predecessors' gameplay
- the quality of the predecessors' story
- how unfinished the overall story of the franchise feels
- how much a sequel was hinted at (through cliffhangers, etc.)
- how much potential is left unexplored

Also:

We focus on last gen games for this list to keep things from spreading out too much.
And lastly,...

No Half-Life 3! (cause that would be a too easy pick for the No.1 spot)

Let's dig deep into the PS3's past to pick out one of its earliest exclusive titles - Heavenly Sword.
What was supposedly once developed as an Xbox exclusive many moons ago, was aimed to be established as Sony's new system selling franchise. While the acting performances and overall style of the game were definitely eye-catching, Heavenly Sword only featured shallow and bland combat mechanics that didn't really allow for any big experimenting or combos in the game. On top of that, the game was relatively short and could be easily beaten in 6 hours tops.
This is really a bummer though, because even despite its shortcomings, Heavely Sword's characters, world and atmosphere combining fantasy with Asian medieval culture was quite something new. Protagonist Nariko, sidekick Kai and most notably the several awesome looking bosses somehow managed to keep you wanting to play through it and see more of the world.
Chances for a Heavenly Sword sequel are relatively slim though, since nothing of the sort has been mentioned by Sony or developer Ninja Theory for a long time. Even with a Heavenly Sword animated movie having been released in 2014 and Ninja Theory's upcoming Hellblade possibly being a spiritual successor, chances for gamers to see more of Nariko's world are very unlikely at this point.

Chances of this sequel happening: Very unlikely

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#9

Metal Gear Rising 2
Latest release: Metal Gear Rising (2013)

After loads of recent news that put Konami in not that great of a spotlight, and even Hideo Kojima himself not working with them anymore, one still mustn't forget that Konami still holds the rights to making more Metal Gear games.

With that said, while we certainly won't see any more true Kojima developed Metal Gear games, Konami sure as hell is going to exploit everything they can and experiment with this franchise.

One of such experiments was 2013's Metal Gear Rising. After a very troublesome development process, Platinum Games, creators of Bayonetta, managed to figure out how Raiden's "cut everything" mechanic could effectively be implemented into a full game.

Even though Metal Gear Rising was a pretty short game and indeed had some rough edges even in its combat mechanics, there's undeniable potential for a sequel.

The first Metal Gear Rising really felt like a successful experiment. With a sequel, Platinum Games already got the formula of the combat mostly right, while they can now put more effort and time into developing a bigger story and apply a bit more polish to the mechanics.

Chances for a sequel happening are actually quite good since Platinum Games even put out an online survey some time ago regarding what improvements fans would want from a MGR sequel.

Chances of this sequel happening: Very Likely

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#8

Turok 2
Latest release: Turok (2008)

2008's Turok is hands down one of the most underrated games of the last generation.

Sure, it is far away from being a masterpiece, but given the fact how well the jungle environments were designed and how faithful the dinosaur looked and moved. It's just a shame that console ports for the game weren't really all too polished at the time. But still, Turok was a blast to play and refreshingly oriented itself a lot on an old-school shooter style, much like Wolfenstein: The New Order.

While a Turok 2 was actually in development for some time, it unfortunately got canceled as developer Propaganda Games closed its doors in 2011. Several concept art and even some in-game footage of Turok 2 has since been leaked online and functions as a sad reminder of what great of a sequel it could have been.

We will probably never get a real sequel to 2008's Turok, but maybe in some years, Turok will receive a full-on reboot once again - and that would be great considering how few actually good dinosaur games are out there.

Chances of this sequel happening: Not going to happen

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#7

Ninja Gaiden 4
Latest release: Ninja Gaiden Z (2014)

Oh how the great have fallen - here's looking at you, Ninja Gaiden.
Ninja Gaiden was once praised as one of the hardest but also best hack n slash franchises out there.
From its beginnings on the original NES all the way to its great reboot with Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox, Ninja Gaiden always stayed true to its hardcore traditions.
But then Ninja Gaiden 3 happened and changed everything. The combat has been significantly dumbed down, QTEs everywhere, way less weapons, way less ninpo powers etc. Even though the remastered version called Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge made signifcant improvements, even those couldn't fix an ultimately broken game. The franchise's situation was only made worse with the bastardization called Ninja Gaiden Z in 2014.
However, at this point, an actual Ninja Gaiden 4 would only make sense if Team Ninja would finally get its s#!t together and really go back to the roots of the franchise. Make it a hard game again, fill it up with loads of weapons, ninpos, great bosses and throw out those stupid QTEs and other casual gamer junk to gain back the respect of your core fanbase.
But to be realistic, it's much more likely that Ninja Gaiden will receive a full reboot in some years rather than a Ninja Gaiden 4, considering that the taste of the last two games was just that bad.

Chances of this sequel happening: Very unlikely

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#6

Red Dead 3
Latest release: Red Dead Redemption (2010)

Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption was rightfully praised as one of the greatest games of the last generation. And with such a talented studio like Rockstar at the helm, did anyone really expect anything less?
It had great characters, a tremendously faithful Western open world, a fantastic story, and the list goes on and on.
Sure, one could argue that there is no need for another story in the franchise, since John Marston is gone and the story ending with his son riding into the sunset felt complete. Well, yeah...HIS story has ended, but that doesn't mean that the franchise necessarily has to stick to the Marston family. Of course a Red Dead 3 could also just continue with Jack Marston's story, but it could of course just introduce a completely new protagonist and tell an entirely new story.
With Red Dead Redemption having been so praised and succesful, it's a no brainer that a sequel will come out sooner or later. After Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption, the only question now is just what it's going to be called? Maybe Red Dead Revenge? Or Red Dead Retribution?...

Even despite the very polarizing re-design of its main protagonist Dante, 2013's DMC: Devil May Cry was met with mainly very positive reviews from critics. With the fast paced and combo-heavy mechanics still intact, DMC was mostly the same core game just with an entirely new coating.
As of now, it might be safe to say that the traditional Devil May Cry series has ended with Devil May Cry 4 (which was nevertheless great). This right here is now the new Dante, and despite the fact that the core Devil May Cry fanbase still isn't too keen about Dante suddenly having turned into a "teenage emo", its the gameplay that ultimately counts - and its very good.
DMC: Devil May Cry was definitely a reboot that was surprisingly better than it had any right to be, but credit has to be given where credit is due.
Sure enough, Capcom won't just give up on DMC. With a proper sequel (which was already somewhat hinted at with DMC's ending) developer Ninja Theory could go all out with Dante and his story. Characters, Dante's powers and weapons have all been established now, so that it's time to dig deeper into DMC's admittedly interesting world. What additionally makes a DMC 2 even more likely, is this year's release of the DMC Definitive Edition that ironed out quite some annoyances of the original game. Now just give us some more challenging bosses in the sequel and we're all good.

It's pretty much a standard by now that each list of "underrated games of last gen" has to somehow include a Darksiders game in it.
And for good reason. With the first Darksiders being pretty much put aside as "yet another God of War clone", the series never gained as much mainstream attention as it deserved.
This somewhat changed when Darksiders 2 hit the scene. Though still not being put on the same level of other hack n slash giants, it was admittedly hard to do so, since Darksiders 2 isn't really easy to pin down to a specific genre. Combining God of War-esque hack n slash, with creative puzzles, a large hub-world to roam around in, and RPG-elements to add some layers of complexity to the combat, Darksiders really developed an own formula.
Sadly, with publisher THQ and developer Vigil Games having closed their doors in 2013, the Darksiders franchise had ended temporarily. With the rights now having been sold to developer Nordic Games, they recently released a PS4 version of Darksiders 2 to once again raise the attention towards the franchise. There's no question that the developer will take advantage of the bought Darksiders rights and eventually release a sequel if the demand is high enough. And with the story of the Four Horsemen against the overseeing Council left unfinished, there's definitely a need and an established fanbase for a Darksiders 3.

Chances of this sequel happening: Likely

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#3

Bulletstorm 2
Latest release: Bulletstorm (2011)

Another action game that met its end way to quickly was 2011's Bulletstorm.
After loads of controversy surrounding the game's "kill with style" mechanics, Bulletstorm had gained quite a lot of attention. Yet, the ever tired discussion about videogame violence aside, Bulletstorm was a very well polished and fun game. It was also one of the most "heavy metal" games you could imagine. And now wonder: being created by Polish developer People Can Fly and Epic Games, Bulletstorm expectedly featured a lot of beefed up badasses with big guns killing ugly monsters on remote planets. While the story is not too much to write home about, it's the game's incredibly well pulled off flow and mechanics that make it at least just as smooth to play as any other Call of Duty game around.
Even though a sequel was actually in the works to continue the story after the game's cliffhanger ending, it never came to be. Today, People Can Fly has become independent from its former parent company Epic Games. It has long been very silent around a possible Bulletstorm 2, but with People Can Fly having secured the rights to the franchise in June 2015, it raises the chance that we might see a sequel in the near future.

Chances of this sequel happening: Likely

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#2

The Darkness 3
Latest release: The Darkness 2 (2012)

Talk about incomplete stories of underrated games: The Darkness franchise.
Based on the comic book series of Top Cow Comics, The Darkness tells the story of Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman who got gifted with the power of the otherworldy Darkness.
While the first game from 2007 developed by Starbreeze Studios was a nice experiment that crossed melee mechanics and shooting with a surprisingly good story, there were a whole lot of rough edges around the game. No wonder that it got quite silent around the franchise for some years.
Yet in 2012, Jackie Estacado returned with The Darkness 2, now developed by Digital Extremes. Now, everything was bigger and better. Coated in a new cell-shaded look, the clunkyness of the original's gameplay was completely replaced with much more fluid controls, more powers and an excellent continuation of Jackie's story. The Darkness 2 was very fun to play, and had a story that stroke a perfect balance between heartfelt emotions and brutal violence, all the while taking place in two dimensions.
Sadly, The Darkness 2 heavily hinted at a sequel through a cliffhanger ending, that to this day never came out. Especially now that Digital Extremes managed to figure out a great mechanical formula for the game combined with a great story that needs to be told to the end, The Darkness 3 has to happen. Though critically met with positive reviews, The Darkness 2 now is one of the more overlooked games of the last generation, making it not exactly impossible but rather unlikely that 2K will work on a The Darkness 3 anytime soon.

Chances of this sequel happening: Unlikely

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#1

Resistance 4
Latest release: Resistance - Burning Skies (2012)

What the hell happened Sony? You had a strong original FPS franchise with loads of unexplored potential left and just stopped doing anything with it.
The Resistance franchise was a great blend between Halo-esque FPS shooting combined with Gears of War-style enemies, yet still Resistance somehow maintained an own unique feeling, succesfully differentiating it enough from its competitors.
What started out very promisingly with the first Resistance: Fall of Man as a great PS3 launch title, further continued with more refined mechanics and bosses with Resistance 2 (although the ending was crap). Yet nobody expected Resistance 3 to become the hands down best entry in the franchise. Oriented more on old-school shooting mechanics without regenerating health, Resistance 3's odyssey story additionally helped to make the entire game feel like an unpredictable journey.
Sadly, though what seemingly killed any possible future installments for the franchise, aside from the supposedly poor sales of Resistance 3, was most notably the underwhelming and ill-received Resistance: Burning Skies for the PS Vita. Putting yet another nail in the franchise's coffin was Sony's decision to shut down all multiplayer servers for all Resistance games in April 8, 2014.
With Insomniac Studios having stated that they won't be developing any more Resistance games, the rights to the franchise still remain in Sony's hands.
At this point in time though, it seems that Sony doesn't really believe in any strong future for the franchise, making a Resistance 4 very unlikely to happen anytime soon - a true shame. Chances of this sequel happening: Very unlikely